The R.E.D. Album

Game

The R.E.D. Album - Fairly Good, Based on 9 Critics

Rolling Stone - 100Based on rating 5/5

100

Game albums often come with as much tabloid distraction as intrigue - between his latest contrived Jay-Z diss ("Uncle Otis") and lame Twitter pranks (like telling his followers to flood the LAPD internship requests), the Compton MC doesn't seem to have given his long-delayed fourth album top priority. Next-gen West Coast-er Kendrick Lamar upstages his elder's flow on "The City," and R&B cuts featuring Lloyd, Mario, Wale and Chris Brown are tepid throwaways. He does give a riveting account of his daughter's birth on "California Dream" and seethes, "We ain't got no options/Wanted to be a boxer, but I was boxed in," on the soul-baring "Ricky." It's proof that, just when you least expect it, he can still rage compellingly.

The Game :: The R.E.D. AlbumInterscope RecordsAuthor: Jesal 'Jay Soul' PadaniaKeep your album short. Seriously. Rappers, keep your album short. Ten to twelve tracks should do it. Why? Because this "iPod generation" possesses an ever-decreasing attention span, some say, and they just can't handle ….

It turns out Game doesn’t need strife in his life to create an excellent album, but for the sake of a thrilling cut, he’ll still seek it out. His fourth official full-length finds the West Coast veteran taking potshots at young folks like Lil B, and he does so alongside Tyler, the Creator, the equally love-him-or-hate-him head of the Odd Future crew. His threat to send Lil B up in flames seems much more pleasingly metaphorical than any of his previous threats toward the G-Unit crew, and when you add Lil Wayne to the cut, you’ve got the brilliant and oddball “Martians vs Goblins.” On the varied yet sharp R.E.D.

Its release delayed a staggering 10 times, Game’s The R.E.D. Album may be the most distilled expression yet of the rapper’s manifold insecurities. Packed to the gills with big-name guests, an equally impressive number lost to the cutting room floor (along with the album’s first three singles), it’s probably the biggest release of anxious rapper angst since Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and while it’s not nearly as self-aware or dense as that masterwork, it’s still an admirably dense and mean 75 minutes of hip-hop.

Featuring blockbuster singles “How We Do”, “Dreams”, and the impeccable “Hate It or Love It”, Game’s first album, 2005’s The Documentary, was West Coast rap’s Thriller if such a thing could be. Back then, claims that the gruff Compton MC was the new Snoop or Cube or whoever seemed plenty valid, if not validated. But as time went on, Game seemed to lack something vital: motivation.

Undoubtedly, Game’s fourth full-length has experienced one of the most public release sagas in music history. Which probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed his career. This is the guy who’s widely referred as bi-polar in a half-joking manner by the hip-hop community, who’s dissed and apologized to Jay-Z so many times we’ve all lost track.

When Game got himself kicked out of G-Unit in 2005, he effectively became a ward of the record industry. He existed, so somebody needed to take care of him. That responsibility fell on the shoulders of the Interscope/Geffen tandem, who, like bad foster parents, decided to remedy their problems with him by throwing unseemly amounts of money in his direction.

Credit is due to Compton, California, rapper Game. He's managed to sustain an eight-year career, though nobody really knows how. His 2005 debut, The Documentary, was strong (with effort, he's not a bad rapper), but since then he's coasted on albums pumped up with all-star collaborations, beef upon beef and a long-standing Dr. Dre affiliation.

California rapper sounds restless on his fourth album. Marcus J. Moore 2011 On previous LP LAX, Jayceon Taylor aka Game seemed assured in his approach, as he saturated deep instrumentals with gruff tales of survival and perseverance in California’s gang territory. Three years later, and he’s still emotional on The R.E.D.